|
WASHINGTON: With his approval rating at an all-time
low, US President George W. Bush, in his final State of the Union
address Monday night, chose to stay on course in his domestic and
foreign policies despite challenges facing his administration.
In a State of the Union address
which revealed his lack of political clout to push bold and
ambitious ideas, Bush urged the Democrats-controlled Congress to
quickly approve the $150-billion economic stimulus package, as the
economy has surpassed Iraq as the top public concern for the
Americans.
The White House hopes the
stimulus package will stave off recession in an economy suffering
from high oil prices and a housing slump.
However, some Democrats in the
Senate have said they want to broaden the bill, including an
unemployment benefits expansion, an increase in home heating
subsidies or higher food stamp benefits. Bush warned against such
proposals, saying that they could derail the whole effort.
Some economists have pointed out
that the stimulus package may buy time but will not be enough to
solve the woes that have roiled global financial market.
Moreover, Bush repeated his call
to make the tax cuts permanent, and urged Congress to approve US
free trade deals with Colombia, Panama and South Korea, and support
his immigration and medicare policy. However, the Democrats have
appeared to show little interest.
On the US foreign policy, Bush
signaled that it will remain almost the same, as he touted the gains
in Iraq through his surge plan of dispatching some 30,000 more US
troops to the country.
“While the enemy is still
dangerous and more work remains, the American and Iraqi surges have
achieved results few of us could have imagined just one year ago,”
Bush said.
Bush also restated his opposition
to a hasty US troop withdrawal from Iraq. “Members of Congress:
Having come so far, and achieved so much, we must not allow this to
happen,” Bush told the deeply skeptical Congress.
Bush did offer something new in
his strategy by declaring a shift of mission for US troops in Iraq.
“Our objective in the coming
year is to sustain and build on the gains we made in 2007, while
transitioning to the next phase of our strategy. American troops
are shifting from leading operations to partnering with Iraqi forces
and, eventually, to a protective overwatch mission,” Bush said.
There are over 150,000 US troops
now stationed in Iraq.
However, according to a Jan.
20-22 survey by the Wall Street Journal, 67 percent of those polled
disapprove of Bush’s handling of the Iraq issue.
Bush’s message to Iran was as
tough and blunt as ever as he urged the country to suspend uranium
enrichment and threatened that the United States will confront
Teheran if necessary.
“But above all, know this:
America will confront those who threaten our troops, we will stand
by our allies, and we will defend our vital interests in the Persian
Gulf,” Bush said.
Bush also signaled his
willingness to promote the Middle East peace process. “The time
has come for a Holy Land where a democratic Israel and a democratic
Palestine live side-by-side in peace,” he said.
Bush visited Israel and the
Palestinian territories earlier this month in a bid to promote the
peace process that he revived at the international conference in
Annapolis, Maryland, in November.
Bush also vowed to stay on the
offensive on the war against terrorism, just as he had repeatedly
stressed in his every previous State of the Union address.
However, more than six years
after the launching of the war on terrorism, Osama bin Laden, the
alleged mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, is still
at large. The “axis of evil” are still a source of headaches for
the Bush administration: Iraq has failed to achieve political
reconciliation, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea failed
to meet the year-end deadline to declare its nuclear activities, and
Iran continues its uranium enrichment despite US pressure.
The fragile Middle East peace
process has been constantly hit by violence between the Israelis and
Palestinians.
The scope of Bush’s challenge
was underscored by a Washington Post-ABC News poll earlier this
month, which showed Bush’s overall approval rating at 32 percent,
the lowest ever.
, with only 30 percent of the
public approving his handling of Iraq. His handling of the economy
rated even worse, with 28 percent approval compared with 41 percent
a year ago.
In sharp contrast to Bush’s
staying on the course, the Democrats, who have assailed Bush over
his handling of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, his refusal to engage
diplomatically with Iran and his administration’s use of the
Guantanamo detention center in Cuba for terrorism suspects, have
called for a change of course and restoring US “moral authority”
in the world.
“Join us, Mr. President, and
working together with Congress to make tough, smart decisions; we
will regain our standing in the world and protect our people and our
interests,” Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius said in the
Democrats’ response to Bush’s State of the Union address.
--Xinhua
|
